


Heureuse Amantes

by blanchtt



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, No Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-08-09 16:25:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 45
Words: 19,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7808845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blanchtt/pseuds/blanchtt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of tiny Cophine fics, both canon and AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Scars (High School AU)

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> _Amants, heureux amants, voulez-vous voyager?_
> 
>  
> 
>  

 

 

 

She helps Cosima off the sidewalk, watching as the other girl gets to her feet, favoring her right leg. Once standing, Cosima pivots, not letting go of Delphine’s hand as she observes the side of her thigh and then whistles.

“Think it’ll scar?”

The term, as Delphine has learned from the television shows and movies she’s watched with her host family’s daughter, is road rash, and Cosima will be lucky  _not_  to scar. Although better that banging her head on the metal stair rail she just tried to slide down.

She had gotten very close, before the last part. 

“ _Certainement_ ,” Delphine replies. Perhaps it’s the reason she’s never seen anyone else skateboard in shorts. She tugs at Cosima’s hand. There’s no saving the shredded shorts, but blood is trickling down Cosima’s thigh and it’s not exactly a paper-cut. “Come on. Your mother has a first aid kit at home. Enough skateboarding for today.”

The response is instantaneous.

“But you haven’t seen me hardflip!”

“ _Ne t’inquiète pas_. I believe you have done it,” Delphine assures her, and Cosima makes an unconvinced noise before she turns, looks back at the school’s stair rail as if she’s  _actually_  going to try that trick again, and then turns back around and finally follows her, dipping down to swipe her skateboard off the sidewalk with her free hand as they head home.

“Next time,” Cosima threaten-promises, and Delphine hums.

As usual, the silence between them only lasts for a few minutes at most. They’re three blocks away from school before Cosima says slowly, fascination clear in their slowed pace as she points to her leg. “Heeey. Did you see there’s gravel in here?”

“If you rip that out yourself without washing your hands,  _Cosima_ , I swear… “

 

 


	2. Dreams (Puppy AU)

 

 

 

****

There are a few things that Delphine knows her mother wants for her daughters. They are not a family of just pretty faces, and so of course on top of their own careers, her sisters have achieved all of those things. 

Clémence, always a lover of math, had married a fellow engineer for Airbus. They had settled into a fittingly expensive and ostentatious house in Toulouse, and had two children, with another on the way in August. Their sporadic Skype calls were often punctuated by the delighted shrieks of the children running around the house, particularly when they noticed  _Tatie Delphine_  on the screen and demanded to speak with her. Solène had opened her own practice in Ville-d’Avray and bought an exorbitantly-priced apartment, and though currently without children seemed in the meantime to be on a relentless crusade to visit the Riviera as often as possible with her fiancé and gaggle of friends.

And then… 

Delphine slips her phone out of her pocket, unlocks it with a swipe, and checks the weather before heading out of their bedroom. In the hall closet she picks out one of her warmer coats, and slips it on before looking around. 

“Cosima? Are you ready?”

“Um, not quite!”

She hears the skittering of nails on the hardwood of the floor and watches with amusement as their little daschund puppy comes barreling around the corner and into the hallway, ears flapping, tongue lolling, and the tags on the collar jingling loudly. She doesn’t even have to hear Cosima’s string of swears to know what to do. As the puppy runs past her, Delphine dips down and picks it up, little legs kicking against her arm before she cradles him to her chest.

Cosima appears around the corner, glasses askew, a leash trailing loosely in the crook of her elbow, and a miniature red sweater held in one hand, which she points both proudly and accusatorially at the puppy. “He’s like a freakin’ greased pig, I swear to god. I almost had him in the kitchen.”

And then, there is herself. Almost seven thousand kilometers away from home, no husband or children in sight, fresh out of a job that she’s sure she can no longer list on her résumé, and with a visa headache she’s still trying to sort out.

“Yes, but you love him,” Delphine says with a smile, looking down at Polo, who gnaws determinedly on her index finger. She shifts him in her arms, extracting her finger and running it softly over the top of his head instead. Big black eyes close almost automatically in delight.

“Yeah, but not as much as I love you,” Cosima says with shocking casualness, meeting her gaze and smiling. “So he better not chew up any more of my slippers, because he’s very easily replaceable.”

Delphine helps Cosima slip the sweater over Polo’s head and secure it over his body, threading his little paws through the arm-holes. “You make it sound as if I  _forced_  you to get him.”

“That’s exactly how I remember it going down,” Cosima says, tongue poking out between her teeth in amusement. “And  _now_ , we’re ready,” she says, and slips the leash off her arm. With practiced ease, Cosima clips it to Polo’s collar, and Delphine hands him off, careful not to let his nails catch on her coat. “Minnesota weather doesn’t mess around.”

”It does not,” Delphine agrees, and opens the front door to let them all out. Cosima makes her way out the door and Delphine follows after her, locking behind them and immediately on her guard against tripping as Cosima sets down Polo, who begins to try to run circles around them both, oblivious to his leash.

Perhaps she’s not living the life her mother has dreamt of for her, but however unexpected her life has turned out she can’t see it unfolding now any other way.

 

 

 


	3. Strengths (Gym AU)

 

 

Whenever Delphine sees the dark-haired girl in one of the gym’s windowed classrooms, it’s always on her way to or from yoga, or sometimes even in the middle of it - bright yellow mat rolled up and slung over her shoulder or spread out on the floor, dressed in loose pants and a top that dips way too low, dreds up in a messy bun to keep them out of her eyes. Delphine can hardly fault her for sticking to one sport despite all the machines and other classes the gym offers - Delphine swims, and that is the extent of her membership. It’s relaxing, to tread water so early in the morning that she’s the only one in the room, smooth motions barely upsetting the glassy stillness. 

They’ve exchanged smiles and waves and light chat about the weather at the water fountain and in the locker room and walking together on the way out of the gym to their cars, and through that Delphine knows her name is Cosima, and that when she had first tried to repeat it Cosima had blushed a slight pink. And so if Cosima were a man she would find herself irritated that the door to the pool room opens, that feet slap against the wet tile of the floor, and Cosima tosses a towel onto the wooden bench and slides into the jacuzzi alongside the pool. 

Delphine finishes her lap and comes to the end of the lane at the deep side of the pool, reaches up and lays her arms on the tiled edge of the pool, resting her chin lightly on her hand. “No yoga today, Cosima?”

Cosima shakes her head, a few loose dreds slapping against her cheek, grinning. “Thought I’d just enjoy myself today.” Her smile freezes, and she rushes to add, “The water, I mean! Not, like, staring at you.” Delphine tries not to laugh as Cosima pantomimes slapping a hand over her mouth and zipping it shut. “Aaand I’m just going to stop talking now.”

Since she’s made her acquaintance, Delphine hasn’t been oblivious to the little stolen glances she’s caught Cosima giving her, and they are not unwanted. “Well, if you get too hot, jump in the pool.” Delphine lets go of the edge, lets herself bob in the water, feet kicking. “When no one’s here, it’s my favorite thing to do. It’s very… enjoyable.” 

She goes back to her laps smoothly, and finds that it take very little time for Cosima, pink-cheeked, to join her.

 

 


	4. Siblings (Hospital AU)

 

 

Delphine has never met two more dissimilar sisters, let alone twins. She’s seen pictures of Sarah before and has an idea of what to expect.

_(“This is me at graduation. Me at space camp. Me and General Sherman - no, the tree. Oh, this is a good one. This is us drinking ourselves stupid at Tony’s party after her pregnancy scare. But don’t worry, Sarah really turned her life around after that. Well, after the hangover. And after she realized you can’t get bail money back. It was, like, a self-directed intervention.”)_

But to drop by at the end of her shift at the ER bed that Cosima was currently finishing up on still left her doing a double-take that had nothing to do with the lack of sleep. 

A narrow-eyed, wild-maned version of Cosima sits on the edge of the bed, clothed in what is likely a real leather jacket, tight black jeans, and scuffed Docs despite the California heat outside. Cosima, meanwhile, her dreds pulled back in a bun and still in her white coat despite having finished working ten minutes ago, works on suturing the cut above her sister’s eyebrow, preoccupied. 

“I hope you got him good this time,” Cosima says conversationally as Delphine stops and lingers near her. Cosima finishes up the stitches, turning to place her scissors on the metal tray on the bed next to Sarah. “Don’t pick at that or get it wet, but knowing you, that won’t scar.” 

“You should see Vic. I think he got the message,” Sarah says proudly, and a bit ominously in Delphine’s opinion. “If he didn’t, I still have dad’s old nail gun somewhere in the toolbox.” Reaching up as if to touch the stitches - baring bruised and bloody knuckles - and then thinking better of handling the fresh wound, Sarah finally acknowledges her presence, turning to look at her. The unsubtle once-over that rakes up and down her is followed by a wolfish smile - and, ah, there is the resemblance to Cosima. “And who’s this?”

Cosima turns, tray in hand, and smiles at her. “Sarah, Delphine.” She cleans up, motioning between the two of them with her free hand. “Delphine, Sarah.” 

“Well done, Cos,” Sarah drawls approvingly, clearly already aware of their relationship. She is her sister, after all, even though watching her is like seeing Cosima exist in some alternate universe, one perhaps where her degree came not from UC Berkeley but the school of hard knocks. Literally. Sarah grimaces as Cosima turns around and, not too gently, applies a bandage over her stitches, but still manages to murmur, “Shit, a doctor? She’s beautiful  _and_  smart.”

Delphine nearly laughs. Apparently a silver tongue is a Niehaus trait. “Charmed,” she replies, and watches as Sarah finally tears her gaze away from her at Cosima’s tap on her knee, but not before winking at her, teeth bared in a grin.

“Alright,  _Serafina_ , hit the road before Delphine becomes the second girlfriend you’ve stolen from me,” Cosima chides, and Delphine watches as Sarah heaves herself up languidly off the bed, carefully ruffles her hair to an artful messiness, and then jams her hands in her jacket pockets, slouching away with the squeak of her Doc soles against the hospital room floor.

“Don’t call me that. And I owe you one,“ Sarah calls over her shoulder, and Cosima next to her shakes her head as they both, finally, head to clock out. 

"She’s stolen your girlfriend before?” Delphine asks as they make their way out into the parking lot. They pass a parked ambulance stalling in a fire lane, the air oppressively muggy with heat, and head for Delphine’s car. 

“Yeah.” The sting of it must be gone, because Delphine glances sideways at her as they walk as Cosima begins to laugh at the memory. “Back in undergrad I was dating this yoga instructor,” she explains around her laughter, hands moving in no particular pattern. “And Sarah just did it for her in a way I couldn’t, I guess.” Cosima goes quiet, resting the tip of her index finger on her chin in thought. “Must have been the brooding scowl,” she concludes. Delphine takes her keys from her bag as they near her car, clicks the button and hears the doors unlock. 

Delphine settles into the driver’s seat, and Cosima settles next to her, rooting around in her bag and coming up with a tube of chapstick. “You’ve seen her,” Cosima continues, leaning forward in her seat. She reaches up, flips down the visor and cranes her neck to get a better angle at the mirror, applying her chapstick liberally. “What’s your conclusion, Dr. Cormier?”

“Perhaps for the yoga instructor, it was the scowl,” Delphine answers noncommittally. She reaches out, brushes the tips of her fingers against Cosima’s jaw, inviting, and leans over the console. Despite the lack of sleep, Cosima lights up, caps and drops her chapstick in her lap and leans in for a kiss, quick and light, before they part and Delphine starts the car. “But I prefer my smiley Cosima.”

 

 

 


	5. Illness

 

 

“Would you like to go to the market with me?”

_Yes. Hell yes. Anything to get out of this room._

She’ll take it back, one day, but right now there is nothing more Cosima would rather do than go outside, walk around, breathe hard, push herself - to never spend another day cooped up inside relegated to the couch, watching rerun after rerun on TV and waiting to get better enough to manage a trip to the market, let alone go back to school. Cosima toes off one slipper and then the other, letting them fall to the floor, and shrugs the blanket draped around her shoulders off of herself and back onto the arm of the couch. “You really have to ask?”

Delphine stills from where she searches for her keys on the cluttered desk, ready at a moment’s notice to dart over to her. As annoying as Cosima had found the constant hovering from everyone in the beginning of her illness, the gesture is nothing to sneeze at now. She stands without help -  _ta da!_ she wants to announce grandly, to bow and sweep her arm through the air, but that would be a poor decision - and manages to step into a pair of real shoes lying nearby and slips on the jacket that Delphine hands her over her pajamas.

She carries nothing with her, neither phone nor wallet, and lets Delphine take charge, following after her. It feels good to be free of cannula tubes, to walk out the door without dragging the oxygen tank behind her, to have Delphine turn away from her for a moment to lock the door and not cling worriedly to her elbow as if she’s some eighty year old woman prone to falling.

(She ignores how many times she’s actually fallen - the memory of that is always hazy, anyway, but what isn’t so easy to forget is how terrified it had seemed to make Scott and how resolutely Delphine, always the professional, had dealt with it.)

They take the elevator instead of the stairs, and Cosima takes advantage of the small space to lean against Delphine, tilting her head against her shoulder, out of comfort and the fact that it means spending slightly less energy holding herself up. “What do you need?” Delphine asks conversationally, to both engage her and start a mental list, and Cosima thinks before speaking.

“A lot. Mostly importantly, tea and lady-stuff.” The elevator continues down slowly, floors pinging away softly. Her list is mostly snacks or easy to cook food for when Delphine is away at work. Stuck inside, it’s not like she can do much other than eat, which everyone who visits urges her to do anyway. Cosima licks her lips, a sudden craving overtaking her. “You know, I really want some watermelon.”

Delphine laughs, probably at the sheer randomness of the admission, and she feels Delphine’s hand slip into hers, fingers threading together. “We’ll have to go up and down quite a few aisles.”

It is matter-of-fact and simply put, because between them now there are no more secrets. “Yeah,” Cosima breathes out, not as undaunted as she would like to be, and follows Delphine out the elevator as it stops and the doors open. They make their way outside, stopping on the sidewalk, and only then does Delphine let go of her hand, looking at her.

“I’ll bring the car around, I parked far away. You’re good for a minute?”

Cosima nods, shooing her away with a wave of a hand. “Totally fine.” Delphine nods, walking away with only one look back and then finally around the corner.

It’s not long before Delphine pulls around the building and parks in in the red zone right in front of her. Cosima shuffles to the car, opens the door and settles into the passenger seat. It is not-quite-warm yet inside, and she curls into her jacket before reaching out for her seatbelt. Delphine is speaking, talking about something, as Cosima pulls it across herself, aims for the little part to click it into and misses.

“I was thinking I could make a daube Provençal, would you like that? If not I could think of something else, something more simple. Sandwiches? Soup?”

It’s just a seatbelt, but the automatic tug of it feels as if it might prove to be too much. There’s no ignoring it - the weariness that had been creeping at the edge of her consciousness and that she had been fighting silently since she had stood up from the couch finally wins out and settles over her heavily, firm and threatening, her motions slowing.

“Delphine?” Cosima says, letting the seatbelt slip out of her hand with a loud plastic  _clack_  as the buckle hits the door.

The words are not laborious, not yet, and no darkness pricks at the corners of her vision, but better not to push today and set herself back for a week. Pride was never something she had in spades, but now especially there is no shame in asking for help, to stop and pause to catch her breath for as long as it takes, to admit that going to the market is far more than she can handle. Keeling over in the baking aisle wouldn’t do.

“On second thought, I’ll wait here.” Cosima glances at her wrist, makes to check an imaginary watch that isn’t there with the tap of her index finger, and takes a deep breath before she smiles at Delphine. “Frozen Planet’s gonna be on in ten, you know? Can’t miss it.”

She’s in remission, but gaining back her strength clearly isn’t going to happen overnight. Delphine glances at her, then opens her door, steps out of the car, and before Cosima knows it she’s at her side, helping her out of the car, hands clasping her own. “If you text me, I’ll get what you need,” she offers. “You got much farther than yesterday.”

“One whole sidewalk, a curb, and into the car,” Cosima grins, standing, and nudges the door shut with a hip as they begin to walk away. As much as that sounds like nothing, it is more than yesterday. They head back up to the apartment, just as slowly as they had left it. “Break out the champagne.”

“I know you’re frustrated and tired, and I’m sure many other things I can’t fathom,” Delphine sighs as they settle back into the elevator. “But I’ll be right here, Cosima, right up until the day you take after Beth and start running marathons.” Cosima smiles at the thought - that would only happen if some other clone decided to impersonate her with the sole intention of shocking everyone she knows - and then laughs as Delphine adds honestly, “That,  _chérie_ , I will admit I have no interest in helping you with.”

She’s not even sure Delphine own a single pair of sneakers. “Yeah, let’s stick to the science,” Cosima agrees as they reach their floor.

She settles back onto the couch once they’re inside, drawing the blanket back over herself with a sigh as Delphine lays the remote and her phone side by side on the arm of the couch, within easy reach. The exhaustion is still there, but without the urgency of before, in the car, and Cosima closes her eyes.

“I’ll text you what I need,” she agrees thankfully, and feels Delphine squeeze her shoulder before leaving.

 

 


	6. Skin

 

 

She runs her fingertips over the curve of Cosima’s shoulder, watching as Cosima, lying on her stomach with her chin propped on her hand and absorbed in her textbook, smiles absently at the touch. 

Delphine sits back against the headboard of their bed and lingers on a beauty mark, wonders if any of the other sisters have that same mark in that same place, and decides that even if they share the exact same one, that even if each constellation of freckles and nevi mapped on their bodies is identical against all genetic possibility, that Cosima’s is unique. Kissing  _that_  shoulder,  _that_  marque de beauté, would not be the same as kissing Sarah or Alison’s shoulder, would not spark the same desire in her as kissing Cosima and her body does, would not coax slow sighs and soft moans meant for her and her alone from Cosima’s throat.

Cosima must feel the air grow heavy with her thoughts because she rolls her shoulders, arching into her touch, and looks at her sideways. 

“Did you know Alison’s mother thought I was mixed?”

Delphine raises a brow in surprise. How Alison’s mother came to that conclusion is of a sociological interest to her. If Kendall is -  _was_ , she corrects herself without letting her face betray her - English and, as far as she knows, in line with the murky, suspect ethics of it all, unlikely anything other than white, then the clones are as well, genetically if not culturally.

“Really?”

Cosima lets out a short laugh, turns back to her book and flips to the next page with a single finger as she continues reading.

“Well, Alison said she said it in a super more outdated and offensive way, but yeah.”

Since leaving the nightmare of the past few years behind, they’ve had time to themselves, to heal and grow, and for Cosima that had meant more time outside of the house at school and at work, and the opportunity for herself to delve full-time into work. Without the unhealthy palor, and if Delphine didn’t know better, she could perhaps see how Alison’s mother could make such a mistake.

“Fascinating,” Delphine comments. And it is, but she slides down onto her side next to Cosima, all thoughts of sciences both hard and soft of little interest to her as she steadies herself with a hand on Cosima’s waist. She bows her head, a hand reaching up to hold back curls that threaten to sweep forward, and presses a kiss to Cosima’s shoulder, fairly murmuring against her skin. “I would never have assumed that about the others.”

“Probably the hair,” Cosima comments, breath hitching as Delphine bites light, teasing. 

Cosima turns over under her touch, and as Cosima rearranges herself, relaxes on her back and looks up at her, Delphine presses herself against her, slides down and settles between her thighs.

Cosima’s shirt is cropped and rides up and her pants are slung low on her now-fuller hips, and this leaves Delphine ample room to press another kiss to the bared skin of her stomach. Her hands settle on the waist of Cosima’s pants, toying with the hem. She splays a hand against her and slides her thumb under fabric, tugging.

“Are you finished studying?”

“Yeah,” Cosima breathes, as if the cracked quality of even that simple word, as if the hand that reaches forward to tuck curls behind her ears and out of the way, and as if the tilt of her hips up into her touch, isn’t telling enough. “Definitely done for the night.”

 

 


	7. Health (Yoga AU)

 

 

As soon as Cosima sits behind the counter and clocks in, she sees Shay begin to walk over to her. 

The knowing smile can’t be good for her, and Cosima braces herself as Shay reaches her, settles against the counter, watching as Cosima pulls up her schedule on the computer. “That woman asked for you, Cosima.” There’s laughter in those words and something like awe, too. “She called yesterday after you’d left. You’re booked for a private lesson Wednesday.”

“It’s not like that,” Cosima fibs, but she smiles anyway, refusing to meet Shay’s gaze for fear of giving herself away totally. Maybe she’d flirted a little with the cute blonde at the beginner yoga class she’d hosted Saturday morning, and maybe the woman had flirted back. She never thought it’d actually go anywhere. But Cosima studies the schedule, and sees that she is indeed signed up for a private session with a Delphine Cormier at three on Wednesday. “She just needs help with pretty much all the poses,” Cosima explains, looking up at Shay and grabbing her smoothie, taking a sip before speaking. “She’s a beginner. Not everyone can be a guru at yoga like you.”

Shay beams at the compliment, but continues. “I think she’s hot for teacher,” she insists, shrugging. “Because she sure didn’t ask for me by name, and you are a shameless flirt.”

Cosima holds up her hands in innocence, grinning, as Shay shakes her head and walks away to prep for their first class of the day.

Who knew Wednesdays could look so good?

 

 


	8. Music

 

 

They’re hosting Sarah and Kira and Helena for dinner, just the five of them, when midway through the dinner Helena gets up and wanders off. Cosima keeps an eye on the sight of Helena moving around her and Delphine’s new apartment, not out of some sense that she needs to babysit a perfectly capable adult but out of interest at the things that Helena lingers on - she gives the bookcase a cursory glance, runs fingers over the beaded pillow on the couch, and disappears into the hallway.   

As they start on dessert, Cosima gets up to use the restroom, and as she walks through the hallway she finds Helena in the room they use as an office, sitting sprawled in the chair that sits in front of the desk, turning a paperweight over methodically in her hands and staring at the dark laptop screen in front of her.

“Kira has this,” Helena says, nodding at the laptop, and then looks at Cosima, eyebrows furrowed. “I do not see appeal.”

Cosima makes her way over, leans a hip against the desk and looks down at her Dell. “Yeah. It’s mostly for work,” she admits, and then has an idea. She taps the touchpad, reaches over to enter in her password, and opens up her library. “Here,” she offers, picking out a song and hitting play. “Maybe you’ll like this better than Minecraft.”

Helena sits up a little straighter, attention thoroughly caught as the quick beat starts reverberating through the speakers. “His name’s Stromae. It’s Delphine’s,” Cosima tells her over the music, that alone explaining the French lyrics.

Helena turns to her, a wide grin on her face as she carefully sets the paperweight back on the desk with both hands. “Dancing?”

Cosima laughs and grabs her iPod off the desk where it’s been charging, pushes away from the desk and holds out a hand to Helena. “We can dance,” she agrees as Helena takes her hand and stands. “Let’s move this to the living room, though, and I’ve definitely got to get some more wine into Delphine before she even  _thinks_  about joining us.”

 

 


	9. Hate (X Company AU)

 

 

Nothing about their relationship is conventional. That had been clear from the start, and it’s turned out to be their saving grace more than once.

Delphine, in a blend of her own concern and a sergeant’s guiding nature, loops their arms together, a friendly-looking gesture that in reality lets Cosima lean heavy and urgent against her. Luckily it’s only a twisted ankle, but with Gestapo walking the streets it wouldn’t due to appear hurt, to be out of the ordinary and noticeable, and Delphine begins to speak as they walk, their pace nerve-wrackingly slow because of her as they make their way to the safehouse.

“So, Renée,” Delphine begins with false cheerfulness, and Cosima hears the change in her voice as she plays the part of a silly young woman, their conversation appeasingly banal to anyone who might overhear as they make their way down the street. Though it gives them cover and something for Cosima to focus on other than the pain radiating from her ankle, there are few things they can talk about other than an annoyingly familiar pattern of bland questions. But today, she catches Delphine’s eye, watches as she smiles with a pleasure that is less than professional as she asks coquettishly, “Did you know?  _Antoinette_  and Felix - ”

“Oh, no, Aurora,  _please._ ”

“It’s true.”

Cosima squeezes Delphine’s arm, hoping it looks playfull, and grits her teeth in what she does her best to pass off as a smile. But a laugh nearly escapes her, too, despite herself. “I hate you,” Cosima whispers jokingly, because Felix is like her brother and Tony  _is_  her brother, and she does not need that image in her head. She’d thought it’d been only a masculine thing, social bonding away from the girls given that the team was composed entirely of women, save for them. 

Cosima nearly trips on a loose cobblestone, and the action brings a wave of pain that nearly causes her to cry out. But Delphine’s grip on her tightens, holding her up carefully, and the soft smile on her lips assures Cosima the opposite as Delphine teases back, “I hate you, too.”

 

 


	10. Admiration

 

 

She’s entertaining Kira to give the sisters some privacy as Sarah and Cosima speak in the kitchen. Cosima had said there was no need for her to leave, but Delphine had shaken her head, grabbed two of Cosima’s Eskimo Pies out of the freezer and taken them and followed Kira to the living room. She doesn’t need to know everything that goes on between those two - particularly if Tony’s name is involved. She’s had enough of sketchy activity going on around her and prefers not to get involved.

Kira eats her ice cream carefully over a napkin on the coffee table, while Delphine sits on the couch, a hand cupped under hers and careful not to get ice cream on anything, including herself. Kira has attacked hers more quickly, and she’s done and licking chocolate off the wooden stick when she looks over and asks, “Auntie Delphine?”

The sisters are all aunties because biologically they are Kira’s family, and so Delphine swallows thickly at the inclusion. “ _Oui, mon chou?_ ” It comes out before she stop herself, but before Kira can make it clear whether she’s understood or not, Delphine smiles, wraps up her ice cream, setting it down carefully on the table and motioning Kira over. “Come here. You’ve got some chocolate…”

“On my face?” Kira asks excitedly, licking her lips, and Delphine laughs as Kira gets up, sitting next to her on the couch.

“Unfortunately, no,” Delphine says, and grabs her napkin, wondering how mad Sarah is going to be at her. Sarah’s style is very rock and roll but always composed, and she can see easily why Kira is always dressed so well. Now? Delphine dabs at the ends of Kira’s curls that she’s managed to get ice cream on before it can drip on her clothes. “I’ve done this before, too.”

“Really?” Kira asks uncertainly, as if she can’t quite believe it, and when she’s sure she’s gotten all the chocolate off her Delphine nods, setting the napkin down and reaching up. 

She runs fingers through her own curly hair and ruffles it quickly, feeling strands fall over her eyes, obscuring her vision as Kira laughs. “Yes!” Delphine replies, shaking her head for added volume. “Recently, actually,” she admits, and looks through the strands that fall in front of her face to find Kira grinning. “It’s easy with big, curly hair like mine or yours or your aunts’.” She reaches out to tweak a curl, making Kira laugh. “But it wasn’t my fault,” Delphine adds quickly. “You can ask Auntie Cosima about that one.”

Kira reaches up to her own hair, ruffling it with her palms as she watches Delphine. “Like this?” she asks, curls going every which way, and Sarah is either going to be very mad or very pleased as Delphine reaches out, helping Kira go from neatly-combed hair to messy curls.

 

 


	11. Sunshine

 

"My little ray of sunshine."

 

It's said jokingly when she doesn't want to get up in the mornings, like today, because she is not a morning person. Cosima burrows further into her pillow, struggling to hang onto sleep as Delphine curls closer under the blankets. Cosima can almost see her smile and it's too _early_ for this. 

 

"Go 'way," she groans, only half-meaning it, and feels Delphine kiss her bare shoulder. She should have known. Delphine plays dirty, probably because she knows she falls for it every time, without fail. 

 

The kisses make their way up her shoulder, until Delphine plants on one her cheek and she's never getting back to sleep in this state, so Cosima starts to kick off the blankets and feels Delphine move away, hears her get up and head for the restroom. "We promised to hike with Cal and Sarah."

 

Cosima blinks, reaching for her glasses, and sits up. " _You_ promised," she corrects, unfolding them, but Delphine's already running the water in the shower, oblivious to her grumbling. It would be so easy to fall back into her pillows, close her eyes for just five more minutes, maybe call Sarah and tell her _not gonna happen, sister_ , and -

 

"Cosima?" Delphine calls over the fall of water, her tone lilting and inviting, and Cosima has to grumble and moan out of principle but rolls herself out of bed, drops her glasses on her pillow and grabs her towel and joins Delphine because, okay, getting up early on a Saturday just started sucking a whole lot less. 

 

 

 


	12. Ocean (High School AU)

 

 

They’re at the beach because it’s almost summer vacation and it’s not like they don’t have the grades to skip _just one day, Delphine, come on_ , and Sarah is with them because, well, Sarah does what she wants when she wants, grades or no grades. 

 

Delphine adjusts her sunglasses, dips her toes into the sand, and watches Sarah dump sand by the handful into a pile that is supposed to be a sandcastle, maybe. Cosima sitting on the towel next to her hides under her wide-brimmed hat, reading, which leaves Delphine free to look out at the water. 

 

California certainly does not disappoint. The sun is out, the breeze is warm, their are people sunbathing, swimming, playing frisbee, volleyball, football, and of course, surfing. She knows Beth surfs and Sarah and Alison skate, Sarah on concrete and Alison on ice, and so she nudges Cosima’s shoulder, asking, “Can you teach me how to surf?”

 

“Surf!?” Sarah bursts out laughing, nearly falling sideways onto her sandcastle, and Cosima’s head jerks up, Sarah’s laughter only growing louder as she apparently tries to imagine Cosima on a surfboard. “Geek Monkey can barely skate!”

 

“Bitch!” Cosima laughs, and holds her book up as if ready to chuck it at Sarah’s head, and Sarah holds up her hands, grinning, as Cosima retorts, ”Says the girl who walks into walls on the regular.”

 

"Yeah, but at least I can skate, right, Delphine?" Sarah asks, haughty, and Delphine has to admit that, yes, Sarah is very good at skating. But it’s not Sarah she likes, and it’s not Sarah who nudges her arm back, grins at her, and says charitably -

 

“I’ll take lessons with you, if you want.”

 

“And I’ll be there to catch it all on camera!” Sarah pipes up cheekily, and darts away as Cosima holds up her book again threateningly.

 

 

 

 


	13. Heights (Rock Climbing AU)

 

Blondie may have longer limbs which is pretty damn helpful when it comes to rock climbing, but that’s really no match for _not being afraid of heights_. 

 

“So, why are you doing this if you’re afraid of heights?” Cosima asks from next to the other woman. She lets go of a handhold, points, and the girl closes her eyes at the motion. _No bueno_. The girl’s partner is shouting encouragements up at her fruitlessly, and apparently it’s going to be up to Cosima to get her down. “There’s a handhold right below your left foot, if you’re trying to get down.”

 

“I thought it would help,” blondie says, very slowly lowering herself and reaching out with her foot for the hold. She finds it, breathes out shakily, and steps down onto it. “Overcoming the fear.”

 

Cosima follows her down the rock wall, watching carefully. “Move your hand down about two feet. There's a nice hold.” And surprisingly blondie listens to her. She’s not a bad climber, but she’d gotten all the way to the top of the wall on her first try, only to look down and freeze. “Only a few more feet, okay?”

 

Blondie manages to climb her way down to the floor, dropping down onto it as soon as she can, and Cosima follows. Once they're on the ground, Cosima unhooks her harness, nods at her partner, Felix, who rolls his eyes and drops her rope to find a less easily-distracted climbing partner. She gives blondie enough time to talk to her partner, to unhook her own harness, and the two split up, blondie walking a few feet away before turning back around, glancing at the high rock climbing wall before meeting her eyes. 

 

And Cosima walks over to her, because blondie smiles at her almost sheepishly. “It's easy to go up,” she says as Cosima approaches.

 

“Yeah, getting down's usually the hard part for most people.” Cosima enjoys the challenge, of figuring out that puzzle backwards and vertical and fifteen feet off the ground, but then again, she’s never had a fear of heights. She’s pretty sure she’d given her mom grey hair solely with her love of climbing trees and rocks and walls, by her propensity to jump off the roof onto her trampoline and by her favorite summer pastime of leaping off the balcony into the pool for a killer cannonball. Cosima cocks a hip, thinks, and offers, “Why don't we start you off on bouldering.”

 

“Bouldering?” It’s said uncertainly, and, _duh_ , the accent. 

 

Cosima waves her hand in the air. How do you explain the awesomeness of bouldering? You just can’t, and so she says, “It’s super fun. Let me show you,” and blondie doesn’t back away from her like she’s nuts. Instead, the other woman nods, intrigued, and Cosima sticks her hand out. “Cosima, by the way,” she introduces herself. “I work here, but I swear this isn’t a sales pitch.”

 

It gets a laugh out blondie, who takes her hand, shakes it delicately. “Delphine.”

 

“Ooh,” Cosima teases, and can’t help herself as she asks, “You know about the French Blow?” She waves Delphine after her and heads toward the bouldering wall, and it gets a thoughtful hum out of Delphine as they walk together.

 

“The what?”

 

“Chalk,” Cosima explains, and she doesn’t want to brag as much as she actually wants to show off because she looks really bad-ass doing it and Delphine is _cute_. “But don’t worry. I can show you that, too.”

 

 

 

 


	14. Hands

 

"Hands to yourself, alright?" Cosima hears Felix scold as she slides back the door to the loft, and oh god, what is she interrupting? But Cosima steps in and sees Felix roll his eyes, turn from the clone sprawled on his couch and head back to his kitchen. "She's taken, Tony, I'm deathly serious here,” he says, and Cosima hears the clink of flutes being set against the countertop. “True love and all that. Must be _nice_.”

 

"Hey, I'm just gonna look!" the clone who must be Tony says, sounding wounded as he lays a hand across his chest. ”You're still my main squeeze, Fifi,” he says sincerely, and Cosima can’t help but laugh. And the clone turns at that, looks at her grinning and nods lazily. "Hey, Dreadlocks,” he drawls, and reaches up to run fingers through his wispy beard. “Nice to finally meet you."

 

"Why I put up with you, I'll never know," Felix says loudly over the pop of the champagne bottle. "Weed's in that little box thing on the mantle, Cosima, darling.”

 

“Tony, right?” Cosima confirms, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it on the couch. Whatever Tony is doing here, he’s obviously welcome to the brunch - mostly mimosas, honestly - that Felix had insisted over text that Cosima join him for before leaving. “Welcome to Clone Club.”

 

Tony lets out a low whistle, and as Cosima grabs her weed she sees him holding up his hands, tracing an outline in the air. “Damn, girl. I know we’re all supposed to be the same or some shit like that, but I'm glad I didn't end up with _your_ body.” He says it seriously, but there's a compliment there as his gaze lingers.

 

Cosima takes a seat on one of Felix’s couches, reaches up to tug at a strap of her crop top to pull the hem up higher and grins as Felix appears with mimosas, handing her one  and the other to Tony, but not before demanding a kiss. She gets the feeling that if Tony sees the hickies Delphine left her last night, she'll never hear the end of it. 

 

"Worked out pretty well for both of us then, didn't it?"

 

 

 


	15. Cold (Hockey AU)

 

 

She's driven all the way out to suburbia to watch Oscar’s match and she’s damned well going to stay for the whole thing even if she’s not at all prepared for how cold it is in the building. 

 

Cosima sits watching the kids zip around the rink, shivering in her thin jacket as she sees Oscar fly by, and raises her hand in a wave she’s sure he’s too preoccupied to catch. She’d expected to run from the car to the building and skip the whole freezing-temperature-thing, not sit in some rink that’s as cold as it is outside. At least it looks like the match will go by fast. Cosima rubs her hands together, clenching stiff fingers in a mixture of excitement and nervousness. The kids are quick and the crowd is shouting and she knows nothing about hockey but she can tell from the calm look on Alison’s face - which hides the occasional flash of blood-lust in her eyes - that Oscar’s team is losing.

 

Cosima keeps her eyes on Oscar, getting surprisingly caught up in it all. Soon she’s shouting his name, trying not to jump up and then groan in disappointment as his team misses a shot. She’s certainly _not_ paying attention to the crowd of families around her, people sitting up or walking around or bouncing kids on their lap. 

 

“Excuse me,” she hears next to her, and Cosima pulls herself away from the match, is met with the sight of a woman who sits tentatively in the empty seat next to her and who looks distinctly more out of place than even she does - long straight hair swept over a shoulder, slacks and a tight blazer over a sheer top, and heels that put her several inches above Cosima’s height for sure. She clutches at a cup of coffee, looking frazzled yet somehow still effortlessly beautiful, and asks in lightly accented English, “This is still the three o’clock match, yes?”

 

“You’re a little late, but yeah,” Cosima replies, and the crowd around them cheers as someone scores a goal - she can only hope it’s Oscar’s team. “Still the three o’clock match. They go by fast, huh?”

 

The woman nods with a laugh, and they lapse into a momentary silence, one in which Oscar speeds by again, and Cosima waves to keep from shivering.

 

“Your son?” the woman pipes up conversationally, and Cosima snorts.

 

“Nah, my nephew.” She points over to Alison on the other side of the rink, busy watching the match like a hawk and shouting indistinct directions. “My sister's coaching.” Cosima has never seen this woman before in her life, but she must have a kid here on Oscar’s team and so she continues politely, expecting only to hear a confirmation of her assumption. _Married. Two-point-five kids. Son plays hockey._ “Which one’s yours?”

 

The woman points to the goalie for the _opposing_ team, and her smile wavers sheepishly. “That one is my sister's as well. _Laurent_. I didn’t want to miss the match but I got caught up at work.”

 

That explains the outfit and the accent, and Cosima turns in her seat, settling back. Is this where she’s supposed to stop talking, say something bland and go back to the game? If so - _nah_. Not her style. “You from Quebec?” she guesses, and watches as the other woman beams excitedly and nods her head.

 

“Yes, originally!” The woman transfers her coffee to her other hand, sticks her right one out and introduces herself. “Delphine Cormier.”

 

Cosima would give anything to hear Delphine say her name the right way, in French, but she can see why she doesn’t even bother. ‘Cosima’ stumps more than a few people and that was in _English_. “Cosima Niehaus,” she says, shaking quickly. 

 

“Cos-i-ma.” Delphine says it thoughtfully, and then leans in a bit closer, arms crossed over herself, coffee held carefully in one hand. Cosima mirrors her, because hey it’s loud in here, alright? “I hope you don’t mind me asking.”

 

Cosima waves a hand, hiding a smile - how could someone ask her that and not expect her to answer? “Ask away.”

 

And Delphine seems to pause almost uncertainly before asking, “Can I buy you a coffee?”

 

_Coffee?_

 

Her gut says go for it, and _women don’t buy other women coffee,_ she can almost hear Alison say, and Cosima feels herself start to smile for reals now. It’s not really jumping to conclusions.

 

“From the lobby?” Delphine reiterates, holding up her own cup. _Okay. Like, right now_. Cosima can respect that. “You look cold,” Delphine explains, and she’s starting to look slightly panicked the longer Cosima goes without saying anything. “Unless you’re not …”

 

Delphine trails off, and it’s vague enough so that anything can be inferred from the offer. _Not cold? Not a coffee drinker? Not into the ladies?_

 

Cosima’s just stunned, okay? Not her fault. It’s not every day that goddesses walk up to her, say her name like _that_ , and offer to buy her coffee - even in Toronto. Suburbia definitely isn't what it used to be when she was growing up. 

 

 

 

Oscar's team loses, and if Alison sees her talking to the super-hot and insanely-smart aunt of the opposing team's goalie she'll have her head, but as she and Delphine head out to the lobby Cosima decides that damn if shivering through an hour of hockey wasn't one of the best decisions of her life.   

 

 


	16. Hesitation

 

They’re at a summer party Alison is hosting when Felix manages to drag Cosima away for a second. It leaves Delphine alone, and that’s when Sarah moves in. 

“Beer?” She offers Delphine a bottle, and says it like a challenge, an eyebrow raised. If there’s one thing Delphine has learned about Sarah it’s that she throws herself headlong into anything. Indecision doesn’t seem to be something she’s a fan of, in herself or others. She’s not a beer drinker, but Delphine reaches out and takes the proffered bottle anyway, watches Sarah’s face crack into a slow smile before she raises the bottle to her lips. 

“Come sit by me ‘n’ Kira, or Alison’ll chat your ear off about some boring shite if she gets ahold o’ you,” Sarah drawls, jerking her thumb toward the table she and Kira have apparently commandeered, conveniently close to the hors d'oeuvres. “I don’t think you ‘n’ Cosima are really the types to discuss bleedin’ property values all afternoon, yeah?”

Delphine’s left standing as Sarah laughs at her own words and turns on her heels. She feels like she’s passed some sort of test, and Sarah’s probably right about the vein of the conversation if Alison does decide to speak to her, and so after another swig she makes her way over to the empty seat at Sarah and Kira's table.

 

 


	17. Sexuality

 

She had confused flirting for friendliness in the beginning, almost embarrassingly oblivious until Cosima had kissed her. Delphine thanks her lucky stars that Cosima had built up enough courage to kiss her, because being with Cosima is certainly an experience. A touch, a word - Cosima can take any and make it into something more meaningful. Delphine’s never had more sex in a relationship before, and it doesn't grow boring or repetitive but only makes her crave Cosima more. 

 

"Cosima, I have work," she mumbles through a kiss, a sincere apology as she pulls away only half-heartedly from Cosima. "And so do you."  

 

Regardless, hands grasp her hips, Cosima grinding up against her thigh. ”Can't you stay just five more minutes?" 

 

Delphine untangles herself slowly from Cosima, who to her credit lets her go without any further pleading, and stands from the bed and buttons her blouse back up. She'd gone into her bedroom to kiss her goodbye, Cosima still lounging in bed, and ended up on top of her, half-undressed and with Cosima's hand down the front of her slacks. 

 

"You know nothing ever lasts just five minutes," Delphine counters, and Cosima grins wide and unrepentant as she settles back into the pillows, hands behind her head. The motion wouldn’t be an issue if Cosima still had her top on, and she arches her back and stretches, teasing.

 

"Is that a complaint?”

 

The confident comment loses some sass (a word Sarah said Cosima has an overabundance of, and which Delphine agrees with) because Cosima is squinting without her glasses. Delphine frowns. She could turn away right now and walk out the door. She _should_ turn away right now and walk out the door. But she only manages to take a step toward the door and stop, because it is impossible to do anything else when Cosima looks at her like that from her bed.

 

It's selfish to leave Cosima hanging, isn’t it, particularly since she's already gotten hers, and Delphine weighs her options, goes over her schedule in her head, searching for extra time. If she skips making herself coffee, guns it to DYAD, can she do it?

 

Delphine shakes her head and slips back into bed, helpless against Cosima’s look of sheer enjoyment and the unbridled warmth in her smile as she pushes aside sheets and blankets and settles between her thighs. 

 

" _Non_. It is definitely not a complaint.”

 


	18. Sunset (High School AU)

 

Sarah paddles circles around them and leaves them both bobbing in her wake, but they've started to get the hang of surfing. 

 

Delphine sits on her board beyond the breaking waves, far out into the water enough that long swells coming to a head only cause the surfboard to bob up and down, not forward. The not-quite-weightlessness of being in the water will never cease to amaze her, and she kicks out, cold water lapping soothing at her sunburned thighs. How far away have today's waves come from. Hawai'i? Japan? Australia?

 

There are still a good number of other surfers out with them, Sarah included, through they vie to catch the next wave before it gets too late and the sun goes down. Already it’s starting to head toward the horizon, and feeling a burning in her arms and legs, the pull of muscles that are absolutely, bone-tired _exhausted_ , Delphine looks around, searching for Cosima amongst them. 

 

But her girlfriend seems to be having more down-to-earth thoughts, sitting on her own board a few feet away. Delphine smiles at the term - _girlfriends! -_ and watches Cosima wipe water from her sunglasses with her fingertips, grimacing.

 

"You're lucky," Cosima jokes, and reaches up to squeeze water from her dreds. Delphine lets her gaze roam, takes in the way Cosima clenches her thighs, tightening her hold on the board, and the arch of her back, the deep maroon color of her bikini against tanned curves, the droplets of water speckling her skin. "Glasses and water don't mix."

 

"True," Delphine admits distractedly, and is vaguely glad she doesn't need glasses. 

 

She tears herself away from the sight, swearing she hears Sarah just out of earshot over the crash of surf - _“Oi! Lesbians!”_ \- and wonders whether it’s time to turn in. The water off California is cold, and on a hot day it's just perfect to surf in without a wetsuit. But with the sun going down, the perfect temperature starts to cool significantly. Delphine feels a flutter of goosebumps make their way up her arm, her nipples harden under wet fabric. No longer moving, being outside of the water is getting distinctly chilly. 

 

Cosima's board bumps against her thigh, her girlfriend sitting side-to-side with her as much as the ever-moving water will allow. "Surfer girl's a good look on you," Cosima says, reaching out to tug lightly on a curl that's escaped from her ponytail. Delphine’s sure that if her mother were to see her now - outside of photos she's sent her - she'd hardly recognized her. She's nearly as tanned as Cosima and her hair has certainly gotten lighter. "Ready to go? It's getting cold."

 

"Yes." With the sun setting they'll be kicked off the beach soon, and Delphine slips forward onto her stomach, lying flat against the board and dipping hands into water as they begin to paddle back. ”Do you think we have time for s'mores?"

 

“Guess we’ll have to find out,” Cosima says, grinning. “Race you back to shore!"

 

 


	19. Night (College AU)

 

Her hand is just about ready to cramp with how quick and tight she’s been writing - Cosima pauses to flex her fingers, sneaks a look over at Delphine, see that Delphine's writing just as quickly as she is, and grasps her pen and keeps going. Cosima jots down ideas in what she knows is chickenscratch but that’s _really_ not the point. It’s Friday and that means Sarah’s having a party back at their apartment, which also means that the entire rest of the weekend is not going to be conducive to studying and there’s only so much time they can spend in the library.

 

And of course, they’re just about finished for the night but not quite when the librarian sweeps through the last floor of the library, letting sleepy and frazzled students know they're about to close for the night. There’s no use arguing with her - Cosima’s already tried before. 

 

Cosima gathers up her pen and papers, jams them all in her bag to sort out later, and then leans back in her chair, jiggling her leg. Delphine takes longer, putting her papers away in her folder and sliding that into her backpack, gathering up her pens and pencils and highlighters and zipping those away in her slim pencil bag. 

 

“Maybe we should hide,” Cosima jokes quietly, and Delphine looks up momentarily to smile at her, distracted. “We could knock this project out and spend the rest of the night staying up reading.”

 

“You certainly know how to throw a party,” Delphine quips, but it’s only teasing. 

 

Delphine Cormier - cute, smart, and had come up to her after lecture last week and asked if Cosima wanted to be partners for the final project, tentative like Cosima could possibly actually consider saying no. Delphine is definitely the type of girl to spend all night in a library reading, and that’s probably why Cosima thinks she’s fallen so hard for her.

 

Delphine drums her fingers against the table in thought, and Cosima leans forward. “I’ve actually always wanted to spend the night in a museum.”

 

“Nerd!” Cosima crows, earning her a glance from the librarian who's stalking toward them, and Delphine makes a face as she shoulders her bag and stands. 

 

“‘Nerd’ yourself!” she retorts, and Cosima follows, grabs her empty styrofoam coffee cup on the way out as the two of them head for the stairs. “You suggested spending the night in a library!”

 

“Details, details," Cosima says, waving a hand in the air dismissively, and it's a good thing the cup's empty - oops. "Which museum?” she pries as they clatter loudly down the stairs and to the lobby. “Like, history or art?”

 

“Science.” Delphine says it as if there could be no other answer, confidant. They make their way out the double-doors, stalling just outside the library as Delphine adds, “ _Le Jardin des Plantes_.”

 

“Right on!” Cosima holds out her hand, grins as Delphine hesitates before reaching up to high five her. She does it lightly, palm glancing against Cosima's own, not like her chem partner Scott who always has clammy hands or Sarah who tries to slap her hand so hard her fingers tingle. It's nice, and very _Delphine_. “You wouldn’t be creeped out, though?” There is a discrepancy there - not one that Cosima doubts at all, no. She gets it. Geek girl from Berkeley who's into hard science. She's not one to go off stereotypes. Delphine is sweet but entirely unfazed by the more detailed aspects of their anatomy class, but still. Spending the night in a museum full of skeletons is _hardcore_. 

 

“Well, no,” Delphine says truthfully with a small shrug of her shoulders. “You could read.” Which is ideal, yes, and Cosima admits that, yeah, she is so totally a nerd. Delphine turns, nudges her with her elbow, grinning. “I’d keep you safe from the skeletons.”

 

She's a nerd, but a lucky nerd.

 

It’s midnight which isn’t particularly a scary thing in and of itself. Neither is the darkness. Being all the way across campus, though, a fifteen minute brisk walk back to the dorms - that’s another thing. Cosima hikes her bag up onto her shoulder, glances up at Delphine and clears her throat.

 

So, maybe she has seen Delphine around campus since the semester had started a couple weeks ago. And maybe she’d seen her alone at the cafe, bought her a coffee, and nearly died of happiness when Delphine had accepted it, asked her to sit down, and the two of them had talked until they’d had to split for class. And maybe after that, she’d caught Delphine looking at her during lecture more than once. The other other girl wasn’t subtle - she’d looked away abruptly, but Cosima’d seen the hint of a smile. 

 

”Hey, uh - ” Cosima begins, which, _smooth,_ and oh no, Delphine is looking at her, biting her bottom lip. “Can I walk you to your dorm?”

 

The uncertain look on Delphine’s face disappears almost instantly, replaced with relief as she reaches up to run a hand through curls. “Yes,” she agrees breathily. “Thank you. I’d like that.”

 

And so the walk back to Delphine’s dorm is filled with more talk about the project - Cosima likes her, yeah, but she likes getting As, too, and she can totally do both, right? They’ve still got a lot to discuss, but getting kicked out of the library and running out of shitty vending machine coffee is making Cosima wonder if the universe is telling her to _go to bed_. But only after making sure Delphine gets back safe. 

 

She stifles a yawn behind her hand as she follows Delphine into her building, down the hall, and just as she promised all the way to her room. Delphine swipes her ID, opens her bedroom door, and lingers with it half-open, turning towards her. 

 

Time to make herself scarce. Cosima salutes her with on hand lazily, smiling at the amused look it gets her. “Well. I guess this is goodnight. I’ll text you tomorrow about the sources?” 

 

She’s about to turn on her heels and head home, but Delphine bites her lip again, holds up a hand like she’s not sure what to do with it, and finally runs it through her curls again, beautifully messy. “You’re going to walk back by yourself?” 

 

Cosima shrugs loosely, throws out a joke to break the tension. “I’m a yellow-belt. I’m _pretty_ sure I can handle anyone who tries to mess with me.” It's not like they're on a dangerous campus anyway. And Delphine laughs, a real one, although she looks around before speaking, voice lower. _Right, past midnight. Oops_.

 

“Yes, and if they pick you up, how will you fight back?”

 

Cosima lets out an aggrieved sound. “Ouch, Cormier. I’m not that short.” Delphine’s got a couple inches on her but she’s seen worse height differences. Sarah and her lumberjack boyfriend, for example. Cosima raises her chin, confident. “Besides, I can run if I really have to.” 

 

Unlikely, actually, but it _could_ happen. Delphine hums, some sort of reply, and watches her thoughtfully.

 

“I think you _are_ that short,” she says finally, and Cosima rests a hand on her hip.

 

It happens a lot and it is one of her _pet freakin’ peeves,_ but for Delphine she’ll give her a pass. She’s hardly sure that Delphine can even pick her up - _she’d_ probably have a better chance of picking up Delphine.

 

“You gonna try to pick me up?” Cosima asks flatly, a challenge. And of course she should know by now that that's not Delphine's style.

 

 _“_ No,” Delphine says, and Delphine leans close with the feather-light brush of unruly curls against her cheek, and presses a kiss to the corner of her mouth, soft and warm, that is gone much too quickly. And then Delphine leans back, bites her lip, and tries not to smile. “But I do have to lean down to kiss you.”

 

Point taken. She'll wear her heels next time. Which, speaking of next time -

 

“Mind if I crash here for the night?” Cosima asks, which is a _huge_ leap but hey, no pain no gain. She reaches out, leans a hand against the frame of the door, shrugs, because if that's all she gets tonight she is by all means more than happy with that. “I mean, for safety’s sake.” 

 

“Yes, you should stay the night,” Delphine agrees in amusement, and along with smart and sweet Cosima can add coy to that list of things Delphine does so well. Delphine takes a step back into her room, reaching out to tug Cosima after her which she does _not_ need to be told twice to do. “For _safety_."

 

 

 


	20. Phone (College AU)

 

She wakes up to the chirping of her phone, and Cosima blinks her eyes open, shuts them almost immediately against the light. What the hell? Sarah keeps their room a chilly sixty degrees - _it’s too bloody hot here_ , she complains regularly - and the shades drawn. She’s just woken up in what is certainly _not_ her room. 

 

Cosima props herself up on an elbow, reaching out for her glasses, but the bedside table is not there and neither are her glasses. And, oh, that’s why it’s so warm - there’s sunlight streaming in from a window where there’s no window in her room, curtains drawn back, and she looks over her shoulder, finds Delphine curled against her back with an arm slung over her waist. 

 

Oh. Yeah. 

 

Cosima can’t help but break out into a smile, reaches down in the direction of the sound of her phone and settles back into bed once she’s found it, feels Delphine curl closer as she scrolls through Sarah’s texts, Delphine resting her chin on her shoulder and murmuring something that sounds something like _Coh-see-ma._

 

 **Yesterday** 11:03 PM

wheres the beer

 

 **Yesterday** 11:07 PM

nm found it

 

 **Yesterday** 12:54 PM

where r u

 

 **Today** 1:16

did u fall asleep in the library

 

 **Today** 1:38

cos

 

 **Today** 2:37 AM

u ded m8? 

 

 **Today:** 10:56 AM

cosima

 

 **Today** 10:57 AM

txt me bitch

 

Cosima turns her phone onto silent, tosses it in the direction of the dark blob on the floor that is probably last night’s clothing and hopes it makes a safe landing. Sarah can handle a few more hours of silence because Delphine is stirring behind her.

 

“So about the project,” Cosima jokes, because she has literally zero interest in that right now as she turns over in Delphine’s arms, kisses her slowly as she slides hands down to Delphine’s waist and pulls her close.

 

Delphine makes a sleepy noise, titling away from her kiss, and Cosima gets a face full of sleep-mussed curls and doesn’t even mind. “Breakfast first,” Delphine says throatily, and yeah, she can do that.

 

“Top Ramen?” Cosima asks, because turning a dollar cup of noodles nuked in a styrofoam cup into a real meal is kind of her specialty. She laughs as Delphine playfully pushes her away, and Cosima kicks off the sheets and slides down her body.

 

“ _Eugh, dégueulasse,_ ” Delphine groans, and Cosima settles between her thighs. “No, a real breakfast.”

 

“Oh. _Breakfast_ ,” Cosima drawls, and she's add a lazy wink for effect except that Delphine's already got her eyes closed in anticipation, fingers threading through her dreds and urging her closer in a way that Cosima can definitely get used to. “Gotcha.”

 

 


	21. Voices (Neighbors AU)

There are a few words of - what, French? German? - before the woman from next door realizes she’s no longer alone.

 

“Oh, no,” she says, and she places a hand over her phone to muffle their conversation from whoever’s on the other end. “Am I too loud?”

 

“Kind of,” Cosima admits, stepping out of her apartment door and closing it behind her. She licks her joint, joins her next-door neighbor out on the cramped, shared patio for a smoke break. “But I couldn’t help but eavesdrop,” she admits. Even if the woman’s talking really loudly just outside her window at eleven at night, she can’t be mad. “It just sounds pretty.”

 

The woman laughs quietly, motions back at her apartment door apologetically. “I’m renting with two other girls so out here is the only place I get any privacy.”

 

Exactly how many French girls are hiding in that apartment? Cosima shrugs as she wets the end of her joint with her lips. “I feel you. Don’t stop on my account.”

 

Her neighbor gives her a smile, finally lifts her hand from her phone and only turns away a little, keeps talking as Cosima sits at the rickety metal patio table and lights up. 

 

Her next-door neighbor does talk a lot more quietly every night after that, and Cosima’s not sure if that’s a win or a loss. 

 

 


	22. Face (Non-Clone AU)

 

She sees lots of kids over the day. Being a tour guide at the natural science museum, it’s part of the job. Weekdays, it’s globs of kids following her around, rapt and tugging at her arms and asking her questions, and it makes working extra hours to pay for her master’s program totally worth it. Weekends, it’s standing around trying to look helpful, field trips meaning the crowd’s thinner and she’s on greeter duty. Not usually the most interesting, except for today. 

 

“You look like my mommy.”

 

She’s gotten lots of off-the-cuff remarks, some hilarious jokes, and a few perceptive observations from kids over the year. This doesn’t fall in any of those categories. Cosima turns from where she’s handing out the day’s program to anyone who wants one, finds a little blonde girl standing near her and watching her. It's the first time she's ever gotten that. Not to brag, but _original_ is something that’s usually used to describe her. 

 

 _Vaniteuse_ , too, according to her girlfriend. “I do?” Cosima asks, looking around, mostly to make sure the girl’s supervised and also, yeah, to see what her mom looks like. “Where is she, by the way?”

 

“Over there,” the girl says, pointing, and cue the panicked mom mode not a second later. Cosima’s seen it before, once an overwhelmed parent realizes their excited little one isn’t next to them. With this woman, though, she hears it before she sees it.

 

“Kira?”

 

And, yeah, the girl’s mom rounds the corner, past the display of pinned butterflies and skirting the big fossilized skeleton of a T-Rex, and the kid’s right. Cosima tries to keep from gaping like an idiot, because she does look like this girl’s mom. _Exactly_ like her. She runs through the possibilities in her mind, grasps for factoids about humans and diversity and statistical chances, and knows before she's even come to a conclusion that it's astronomically impossible. 

 

“Kira, monkey, where - ”

 

The lady stops, sees her, and nearly drops the souvenir kiddie cup she's got in one hand and the program in her other hand, which Cosima totally understands because she thinks she might need to sit down soon, too. 

 

“... Holy _shite_.”

 

 

 


	23. Eating Disorder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just Helena being Helena.

 

Cosima pours mint tea into the mug, lets it steep a bit before picking the cup up carefully. She sits at Felix's kitchen table, places it on a coaster and slides it across the table to Helena, who still looks queasy despite having already thrown up in his sink, which is another problem entirely but not the most pressing right now. 

 

“Maybe if you slow down,” Cosima offers, and watches as Helena leans bodily against the table, reaches out with both hands and grasps the mug with a scowl, pulling it toward herself, “You won’t get an upset stomach as easily?” She feels partly responsible, bringing back so much food for lunch. Maybe she didn't make it clear that they didn't have to actually finish all of it at once. 

 

“Is good idea, sestra,” Helena says, words thick and wet as she speaks around the rim of the mug, and Cosima wonders if she’s going to choke, speaking and drinking like that, and she hopes it doesn’t come to that because Delphine is the doctor, not her. Helena puts the mug down and half of it’s gone - that can’t be good, it’s still _hot_ \- and burps loudly, sitting back in her chair with a thump and grimacing. “Thank you. But I was hungry.”

 

 


	24. Animals (High School AU)

 

Cosima opens her closet, looks back over her shoulder to see Delphine is still sitting on the bed. _Okay. Good_. “So, I’d like you to meet someone very special,” she says, and moves around a few shoes to reach what she’s looking for. 

 

“Okay,” Delphine says, and Cosima picks up the handle of the tank. The rat inside scrabbles against the plastic flooring, and she clutches the tank carefully to her stomach, keeping it stable as she looks over her shoulder again. 

 

“But don’t freak out.”

 

The only change is in Delphine’s expression - eyebrows furrow lightly. “Okay?”

 

And so Cosima turns around, and Delphine’s eyes go wide, but she doesn’t scream and run halfway out the door like Sarah did which is a plus. “This is CF.”

 

Delphine gets up, walks over to her, and Cosima puts the tank down on her dresser. Delphine leans down, watches the little white rat settle into a corner and begin washing its face with tiny paws. “Cosima, where did you get this?”

 

Cosima frowns, opens the top of the tank, and reaches out with her index finger, runs the tip of it over the rat’s back and watches as it closes its eyes. “I stole it from the senior bio class. They just left it in the snake cage, how fucked up is that? That’s not even how you’re supposed to feed snakes.”

 

Delphine makes a displeased noise and stands up, hands decisively on her hips. “She’s very cute,” she all but announces, and Cosima grins. 

 

“Want to go to the pet store with me?” she asks, and closes the top of the tank, putting it on the floor where it can’t tip over. “She needs an actual cage and food.”

 

Delphine nods, and Cosima grabs her keys and wallet, following Delphine out the door. “So you’re keeping her for good? Do your parents know?”

 

“Nah, but they’ll be fine with it. Seriously.”

 

 

 


	25. Instruments (Music AU)

 

It’s almost one in the morning and she can’t sleep, and so Delphine does what she always does. Except her roommate and neighbors won’t be happy, so she grabs her violin, heads down to campus, makes her way to the music room, and slips inside. 

 

The lights are already on and she’s not surprised that the room’s open and someone’s already here. The perks of going to a conservatory. There’s a girl with glasses and dreds sitting cross-legged on the floor, tapping away at a panel full of buttons, the entire contraption plugged into her laptop. Rhythmic beats, tinny from the speakers, fill the room, and Delphine makes sure to slam the door shut behind herself as she walks in, to avoid spooking the girl. 

 

And it does work - the girl’s head pops up, dreds whipping and fingers pushing at the bridge of her glasses to push them up, and she squints, fluttering hands going still and the beats going silent, instrument abandoned in front of her. “Oh! Hi.”

 

“Hey,” Delphine says with a nod, and pulls up a chair and sets her case down, dragging a stand over. “I’ll just practice over here,” she says, putting some distance between them, and begins to set up. “You don’t have to stop.”

 

“You sure?” the girl asks, and Delphine nods, adding rosin to her bow. 

 

“That is a very unique instrument,” she says conversationally, and the girl grins. 

 

“Thanks. I play cello but this is my baby,” she says, and looks like she’s going to stop herself before she says excitedly, “I’m sure it’s different for violin. But I feel like my Push really, like, connects with the mathematical side of music.” Her hands motion in the air like she’s drawing out her thoughts, and Delphine rests her bow on the stand, watching the girl explain. “Cello, not so much. Too many concertos,” she laughs, and Delphine understands. “There’s a whole fundamental mathematical relationship between strings and digital harmony that’s being left out, you know?”

 

Not many musicians are interested in the hard science behind music. To be fair, they try. Every conductor expounds on the math behind it. But few people have a will to have the background in both. Delphine sits forward, violin untouched. “Ah. I’ve been reading on frequency modulation and music synthesis - ”

 

“No way.”

 

“Yes, ‘way’,” Delphine laughs at the interjection, the girl’s unabashedly interested expression as she leans forward, hands on her knees. 

 

“Can you send me that PDF? I’m Cosima, by the way.”

 

“Delphine. And it’s a book,” Delphine clarifies, and before Cosima’s smile can fade, she offers, “I can lend it to you. You’ll be here tomorrow?”

 

“I’m here pretty much every night, yeah,” Cosima says, sitting back and picking her instrument back up off the floor with one hand, and waving her free hand at her. “But don’t let me distract you.”

 

Cosima fiddles with her laptop, and as she starting tapping away again the music’s much more quiet, and she _is_ here to practice so Delphine shakes her head in amusement, turns away, gets her violin out, and makes a mental note to bring that book tomorrow night.

 

 


	26. Clingy

 

 

Cosima’s wardrobe has an occasional dress thrown in. Not pretty sundresses like Alison has or expensive pieces like Rachel owns or even anything like her own cocktail dresses, but tight ones, fabric snug against curves Delphine longs to run her hands over. 

 

“Someone can’t stop watching me,” Cosima sing-songs, and it is true. She’s passed by their study several times over the past hours where Delphine has been finishing work, thoroughly distracting, and finally comes in, stands next to Delphine and toys with a curl.

 

Delphine saves her document, control and S key like she does every time she's put down a particularly important thought. “Would you believe it if I said I was studying anatomy?” she asks, looking up, and Cosima cocks a hip as she thinks, biting her lip. 

 

Cosima's dresses do not ruffle or flow, or show any extraordinary amount of skin. But the pull of it across her hips has Delphine arching to touch, leaning forward and keeping her hands to herself, fingertips light against the laptop keyboard, though nothing would be more satisfying right now than to stand, to slide her palms from Cosima's hips to her ass, to grasp and pull Cosima up to her. _That_ always works in her favor.

 

“That’s the oldest line in the book,” Cosima laughs, and lets Delphine take her hand and tug. Cosima follows, slips between her legs, reaches back to push the laptop away and sits back on the desk with a smile that grows wider as Delphine lays a hand on her knee, slides it up slowly and toys with the hem of her dress.

 

“Did it work?” Delphine asks, and smirks as Cosima’s legs part and her hips rise toward her, head tilting back as she grabs at the edge of the desk in anticipation.

 

“Fuck, yeah.”

 

 

 


	27. Germs (High School AU)

 

 

“Dare you to eat that,” Sarah says, pointing, and Cosima considers it. Really, she does. She’d ripped open her bag of Skittles a little too hard and a rainbow of little candy pieces had scattered across the study cubicle’s table, some falling to the library’s tile floor and skittering away. She’d spent three bucks on that because the vending machine was closer than walking off-campus to a real store and was regretting it more and more. 

 

“Yeah, right,” Cosima says, nudging them away from her with the toe of her sneakers. A few roll under the cubicle’s wall, away somewhere, someone else’s problem, and Sarah leans closer, tips her chair dangerously.

 

“Ten bucks?” Sarah offers, a hand grasping her shoulder, and Cosima shakes her head resolutely.

 

“You don’t have ten bucks, and if Delphine ever learned I ate something off the floor, she wouldn’t kiss me for a week.”

 

 

 


	28. Nicknames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this phrase, but three guesses why Anglophones don't.

 

Cosima pauses, concentration momentarily broken. She turns in her seat, away from her laptop to stare at Delphine’s retreating back. The little kiss to her cheek was cute, but the rest of it? ”Did you just call me your bitch?" It’s totally unlike her, and Delphine looks as confused as she feels as she turns around at the sound of her voice.

 

" _Non_ ,” Delphine replies. “I said _je t’adore, ma biche_." 

 

Lost in translation, although it really does sound like Delphine called her her bitch. Cosima smirks, unable not to tease. ”Sure you did."

 

"It is very pretty,” Delphine explains with a nonchalant wave of her hand. “It means my doe.” Which, okay, yeah. That is pretty cute. But Delphine smiles, and adds, “It's better than 'my flea'."

 

_What?_

 

”What?"

 

Delphine appears to think, tapping her index finger against her chin. ”’My chicken’?”

 

She’s just fucking with her. Or maybe not. Cosima laughs and shakes her head. As cute as those little names probably sound in French, they do not translate well. ”Forget I said anything."

 

Cosima turns around, tries to go back to her paper, but Delphine’s leaning over her shoulder, pressing another kiss to her cheek. ”Or would you prefer 'my cabbage'?"

 

“’My bitch' is fine."

 

 


	29. Drugs (Non-Clone AU)

 

"Cosima, what is this?"

 

Delphine’s found the weed. Crap.

 

Cosima heaves herself up off the couch, walks over with hands outstretched, and watches as Delphine, standing at the top of the stairs to the basement, glares exasperatedly at her.

 

"Delphine, chill - "

 

She hardly finishes the word before Delphine’s hand cuts through the air in a _stop_ motion. ”Do not tell me to 'chill’, Cosima. It is illegal, _non_?” 

 

Cosima shrugs, and Delphine’s mouth purses, and before she can get too angry she pulls out her phone. “Seriously, no one’s gonna bust down our door and _arrest_ you, Dr. Cormier. This isn’t France.” She texts Beth, watches the message go through with a _bloop_ , and holds it up. “I’ll double check with Beth, okay? This is Canada. I can grow my own weed if I want to. I think."

 

Delphine looks mollified, and her hands go to her hips, fingers drumming. “Well. If it is not, please get rid of it.”

 

Cosima makes a motion like she’s taking a toke, grins because if she does Delphine can’t resist her. And Delphine rolls her eyes, turns away before Cosima can see her start to smile.

 

“That won’t be a problem.”

 

 

 


	30. Apologies

 

Cosima always skirts over her scar like an apology, fingertips moving over her ribs instead as Delphine slips off her shirt.

 

She’s told Cosima it’s not her fault and that there’s nothing to be guilty or sorry about. Although she didn’t know what she was getting into when she said yes to being a monitor for Leekie, she could have quit, could have said goodbye and packed her bags and gone back to France and away from everything. But she didn’t.

 

“I still feel like it’s my fault,” Cosima says, a tinge of uncharacteristic bitterness to her words, and Delphine shakes her head. She reaches out, a hand trailing along the curve of Cosima’s jaw, but Cosima looks at her and then away, and Delphine sighs. 

 

“Fault,” Delphine breathes, the heated moment temporarily losing momentum. She shifts her weight off of Cosima, watches Cosima under her purse her lips unhappily and finally look back at her. “Did you shoot me?”

 

Cosima snorts, but it’s followed by a smile. A tiny one, but a step in the right direction. “No,” she replies dutifully, and Delphine nods.

 

“It was Duko’s fault,” Delphine says, and since Cosima does not move, she moves, slides hands down Cosima’s arms and to her wrists, takes her hands and places them on her breasts. Wallowing does not suit either of them. “No one else’s. _Capisce?_ ”  

 

And that gets a genuine smile out of Cosima, one that bares teeth and gets Cosima to squeeze, to arch up for a kiss. “You’re quite the cunning linguist, Dr. Cormier,” Cosima begins playfully, and Delphine knows that she’s allayed whatever lingering guilt Cosima still has and that they’re ready to leave that in the past for good, hopefully.

 

 

  


	31. Community Service (High School AU)

 

Detention doesn’t mean sitting in a room staring off into space. That would actually be great. But no. Instead it’s physical labor, which Cosima doesn’t know if it’s better or worse. Staring off into space is excruciatingly boring - they don’t even let you work on homework - but scraping dried gum off the school sidewalks on a Saturday morning sucks.

 

The usual detention characters are here, Cosima can only assume. Sarah Manning, stabbing away at gum with an angry look on her face, actually getting shit done for some bizarre reason. Felix Dawkins, chipping away occasionally at gum whenever their hall monitor walks by, and then stopping and making sure his nails haven’t been damaged as soon as they walk away. 

 

And for some reason, her straight-A lab partner, Delphine. Cosima abandons the black blob of gum on the floor she’s working on, scoots over to where Delphine is sitting doing nothing.

 

“So why are you here?” she asks, sincerely confused. 

 

Delphine places the scraper down, clearly not willing to go along with the punishment. “I was smoking in the bathroom,” she admits, and Delphine doesn’t look defiant like Sarah, only indignant. She waves her hands in agitation. “It is normal to smoke in France! I wouldn’t have to hide in the bathroom there.”

 

“What a rebel,” Cosima says, and Delphine huffs. 

 

“Why are you here?” she asks, and Cosima points at Sarah.

 

“I let her copy my homework. I told her if she was gonna copy not to leave too many of them right on her worksheet or it’d look weird, but, well,” Cosima says cheerfully, and holds out her hands, careful not to wave the scraper at anyone. “Here we are.” 

 

Delphine arches a brow. “You’ve never offered to let _me_ copy off your homework.” 

 

It’s teasing, and Cosima grins, takes a stab at a spot of gum to appear busy as the hall monitor walks by and disappears again. “You don’t need it,” she answers truthfully - honestly, one of the best things she likes about Delphine, that she gets the how and why of science like no one else seems to - and Delphine looks at her, amused.

 

“I’m not sure whether to be annoyed or flattered,” she finally says, and now that the monitor’s walked by, Felix gets up from where he’s been sitting, walks a few steps over and jostles Cosima as he takes a seat next to her.

 

“If you’re gonna keep hanging out with Cos,” he says, smirking and pointing to Delphine, “prepare for both.”

 

 


	32. Assassin

 

 

"Cosima, why are we going to the nail salon?"

 

Delphine is asking, but she has a steady expression that tells Cosima she already knows exactly what they're doing. Is she that transparent? Maybe. She's not the type to get her nails done. Damn it. 

 

"Krystal doesn't believe us," Sarah had said, shrugging. It had made sense. Did any of them believe the clone thing until three, four, five other women showed up, all looking exactly alike? It had looked like it would take quite a lot of effort to get Krystal to have any permanent involvement with Clone Club, which given the situation hadn’t (and still wasn’t) good. Loose ends and wandering clones weren’t good for anyone involved. Sarah had wanted to keep them all in contact and had given Cosima a clone phone and asked her to deliver it. 

 

Easier said than done.

 

"Um." They had promised no more secrets. "I have to give Krystal something," Cosima admits, turning into the driveway of the strip mall. "Sarah wanted me to. She just asked me to, like, five minutes ago, and then you hopped in the car with me, and - "

 

"I want to come," Delphine announces, gathering her things as Cosima parks, and Cosima nods as she turns off the engine. There aren't many made members of clone club, but of those few Delphine is certainly one of them. She can come along anywhere Sarah needs Cosima to go. 

 

"Yeah, of course."

 

They make their way inside and mention Krystal’s name with the receptionist, but before he can say much more Cosima hears her, tugs on Delphine’s sleeve, and starts walking. 

 

“I ordered a venti iced skinny hazelnut macchiato, sugar-free syrup, extra shot, light ice, no whip, and he gives it to me and I totally take a sip and it’s _not_ sugar-free syrup! So I handed it back and asked for a new one, and he totally gives me a look like I’m making his life harder, you know? Anyway, he was totally ungrateful on top of being ugly. It was _awful_.”

 

Krystal is chatting with someone else, leaning up against a counter and looking like she’s on break, and Cosima steps forward, reaching into her pocket for the phone and getting it out. It won’t be as easy as handing it to her and running. She runs over her arguments for the phone in her head, hoping at least one of them stick with Krystal - safety is the biggest one, really. “Hey, Krystal?”

 

And Krystal turns to her, an annoyed look on her face as she stop her conversation that almost stops Cosima in her tracks. But Krystal takes in the sight of them both, eyes going wide.

 

"Oh. My. God!" 

 

Krystal practically throws down the cup of iced coffee she's holding in something like a mixture of shock and disbelief, and Cosima's aware of a few heads turning toward them at the pitch of Krystal’s words, of Krystal’s coworker walking away with a roll of her eyes. In any other situation it wouldn't be an issue to be seen in public with her, but Cosima can only fake the twin thing with so many other clones in Toronto before someone's going to start putting two and two together, especially if Krystal’s coworkers know anything about her actual family.

 

“Hey, can we move this to the back or something?” Cosima asks, motioning with her free hand. _Of course Sarah would ask her to do this. Of course._ Couldn’t Felix charm his way in here or something and convince her to take it? But Krystal ignores her and only looks Delphine up and down, still wary.

 

“I thought you were dead,” Krystal whispers loudly, and motions with her free hand vaguely at Delphine’s middle. “I saw you get _shot_.” 

 

And this is exactly the sort of conversation they shouldn’t be having in public. Cosima holds up the phone, waves it, and takes a step closer. “Krystal, I did come here for a reason - ”

 

Krystal’s hand shoots up, index finger held up in Cosima’s face in a _stop_ motion, and Cosima blinks, rethinks that step forward and actually takes one back. “Just a minute, please.”

 

Okay. They’re going to have this conversation here. 

 

Cosima sighs and watches as Delphine smiles at Krystal in a way she does with no one else, except around her, and it strikes Cosima that neither the Manning clan nor Alison are particularly friendly to Delphine. Krystal’s the one other clone, besides her, that’s actually genuinely happy to see her. “I almost did die,” Delphine says, mercifully more quiet that Krystal. “Many people thought I was dead.” And Cosima is shocked to feel Delphine reach out, to feel her squeeze her hand in what would be a romantic gesture, except that she slips the phone out of her hand discretely. “It was for the best, at the time.” Delphine holds out the phone, and to Cosima’s surprise Krystal, enthralled, reaches out automatically, accepting it. “Here. If you need to call us.”

 

Really? It’s as easy as that? But Cosima only smiles, thinks back to when she had just met Delphine, and, yeah. It is that easy when she smiles at you like that.

 

“Am I going to get to go on real missions?” 

 

“For sure,” Cosima agrees, nodding as Krystal looks at her accusatorially, and, hey, that’s _totally_ unfair. Sarah’s the one that tricked her into playing board games with the guys that one time, not her. “We need all the help we can get.”

 

“And your number’s in there?” Krystal confirms, opening up the contacts and scrolling trough the brief list, and Delphine nods. 

 

“Yes. You can call Cosima or I any time. Or text.”

 

“Alright," she agrees, and Cosima breathes a sigh of relief as Krystal reaches up to flip her hair, pause and think, and finally slip the phone into the back pocket of her jeans. "But I'm buying a new case for this. Purple is _so_ not my color.”

 

 

 

 


	33. Procrastination (High School AU)

 

 

“You’re procrastinating.”

 

The longer Sarah spends on her phone instead of studying, the longer it’ll take her to pass the GED test. So far, Cosima’s gotten out her pen and paper and has been waiting for Sarah to join her at Mrs. S’s kitchen table. 

 

“I know,” Sarah says, and she does sound genuinely contrite. But she sits up from where she’s slumped on the couch, holding out her phone to Cosima. “But look at this cool motorcycle!”

 

Cosima squints and then whistles approvingly. “That is cool.” If she had to pick between a high school degree and a motorcycle, she’d pick the high school degree. But then again, she could never look as bad-ass as Sarah will on a motorcycle. Cosima bites the end of her pencil, frowning around the taste of the eraser as she reaches with her free hand for her own stats textbook. If Sarah doesn’t want to work, she’ll catch up on her own homework until it gets dark and Mrs. S inevitably asks her to stay for dinner. “You should get it.”

 

“I’m damn well going to,” Sarah says resolutely, and Cosima is unsurprised to find a motorcycle in Mrs. S’s driveway the next time she comes over to help Sarah study again.

 

 


	34. Cultured (Canon Reversal AU)

 

 

 

Delphine pulls her jacket tighter around herself, hopes the cold wind won’t shift and give her away. She watches from around a corner of a building as students walk to and fro across the snowy grounds, to class, to the cafeteria, to the library. She probably should not be smoking on campus hardly three seconds after getting out of TA’ing her latest class, and particularly something that is clearly not a cigarette, but gambles never pay off without some risk.

 

And loitering in public works.

 

Cosima appears from nowhere, siddles up next to her and leans against the building wall, all puppy-dog eyes and bright smile and curly brown hair, and it’s easy, at work the next day, to tell Leekie it’s going well. It’s not so easy to nudge Cosima’s shoulder with her own, to smile back, to pretend it’s all part of some contrived plan to get to know more about her for the sake of the project, for her health, when all Delphine wants to do is lean down and kiss her.

 

And, _merde_ , the wind does shift. Delphine reaches up, pushes back a dred that’s escaped her ponytail, and raises the blunt in her other hand. “Help me finish it?” she offers, and Cosima’s eyes go large. 

 

“ _Ah_ ,” Cosima starts, uncertain as she holds up a hand in a motion that clearly means _no_ , and Delphine finds it exasperating and hilarious that, even being Québécoise, that damned French accent does something for her. If Leekie’s intention of pairing her with a French clone was to facilitate her monitoring, he’s made an enormous miscalculation about her sexuality. “Just cigarettes for me.”

 

“You sure?” Delphine says, and watches in amusement as Cosima continues to watch her with a smile, looking less and less sure about her convictions by the second. Delphine leans close, grins, and Cosima takes a step closer. “I’m going to get you so baked one day,” she promises lightly, and whatever objection Cosima has to pot seems to fly out the window, morals or reason abandoned with a quickness.

 

And because she can hardly stand it anymore, and apparently neither can Cosima, Delphine gives in, pressing a kiss that is hardly appropriate for _le biz_ to one corner of Cosima's mouth and then the other, feels her glasses press against Cosima's cheek and hopes she doesn't mind.

 

“ _A plus tard?_ ” Delphine asks hopefully as she pulls back, raising what's left of the blunt to her lips so as not to waste any, and Cosima nods mutely before stammering a reply. 

 

“Yes! Yes. Uh, later," Cosima repeats, and Delphine feels herself smile, nervous with excitement, as Cosima waves a hand nonchalantly in the air, as if either of them could take lightly what she's about to say next. "My place?" And Cosima hefts her bag higher onto her shoulder and motions over her shoulder, actually looking _disappointed_  about having to go to class. " _Mais tu peux me texte_ if you can't make it, I just, uh, have to run. I have to TA right now.”

 

 

"I look forward to it," Delphine agrees, before Cosima can misinterpret her stunned and happy silence. She raises her free hand, moves her fingers in a little wave as Cosima smiles once more, taking a reluctant step away. "Around six?"

 

"Yes. Sounds good."

 

Delphine lingers in the cover of the building as Cosima walks away, leans up against the wall because the blunt's starting to go to her head. Cosima has mentioned liking Chinese, and there's the wine she's got sitting on her kitchen counter. She can bring those over as a good invitee, purely in the interest of friendship, and, because it's Cosima, there's also that article on Zika transmission she wants to discuss with her. 

 

Delphine snorts, shakes her head, and, oh, she's so screwed, thinking like that already. But it hardly feels like a bad thing because Cosima, in her bright red coat, is hard to miss, and the glance back Cosima gives her about halfway across the courtyard is hardly subtle. And, _merde_ , Delphine certainly can't misinterpret the stupid little butterflies it gives her.

 

 

 


	35. Test (Cafe AU)

 

 

 

The day is testing her patience and likely her continued employment at the cafe so, of course, she spills a coffee on a customer. Just a little bit on her jacket and it’s not like it was boiling hot, but Delphine puts her platter on a nearby counter, rushes to help clean up, and tries not to cry. Luckily, the woman in incredibly relaxed about it all.

 

It comes out of her paycheck but she’s just happy she still has a job. The next day back at work Delphine's super careful not to screw up, but she is surprised when the same woman comes in and sits in her area. Delphine goes over to get her order and smiles as the woman strikes up a conversation with her - clearly a tourist, but a very nice one.

 

“I was hoping you didn’t get fired because I really wanted to see you again,” she says cheerfully, and somehow it’s not at all like the other times she’s been hit on. Delphine cocks a hip, grins back.

 

“Are you sure that’s a safe idea?”

 

And the woman seems to reconsider, maybe wonders what her chances are of getting coffee spilled on her again, but winks. “As long as you don’t serve us on our date, I think I’ll be fine. Oh, by the way - would you like to go out on a date sometime?”

 

 

 


	36. Poverty

 

 

“See, the thing is - ” Cosima starts, and Sarah rolls her eyes “ - I’m kind of here illegally, and my grant money ran out last week, so I’m pretty low on cash.” 

 

“Yeah, you mighta mentioned that the last four times you asked me to spot you,” Sarah mutters from her seat at the kitchen table, and Cosima grins winningly.

 

“And is it going to work a fifth time?”

 

Sarah seems to think, and then reaches into the back pocket of her jeans. She practically thrusts the cash into Cosima’s hands, grumbling, “Go smoke at Delphine's place. Mrs. S is bringing Kira over later.”

 

Cosima leans over, brushes her lips against Sarah’s cheek and laughs as Sarah reaches out to push her away.

 

“Love you, sis!”

 

 


	37. Torture

 

 

“Cosima?”

 

The past fifteen minutes have been a mixture of heaven and hell. They’re in public, so it’s look but don’t touch, but _damn_ is the view nice. Cosima closes her eyes, prays for strength, and steps around the corner. Delphine’s got the door to the changing room open a crack, peering out, and opens the door a little wider, dragging Cosima in.

 

There’s a flurry of warmth, blonde curls in her face, and Cosima rests her hands on Delphine’s bare waist, blinking. “What do you think?” Delphine asks nervously, tugging at a strap that slides off a shoulder, and Cosima feels her brain start to short-circuit.

 

“Good,” Cosima babbles, a little too busy taking in the scene of Delphine’s choice of lacy bra to form a coherent response. _How about: spectacular, awe-inspiring, a gift from the gods themselves?_

 

“‘Good’?” Delphine repeats, the hint of a frown showing a clear disappointment at the apparent lack of interest, and Cosima has to remedy that ASAP. And so Cosima slides her hands up Delphine's waist, cups her breasts, and kisses her.

 

“Yeah. Really good," Cosima elaborates poorly, although Delphine does seem to enjoy the appreciative squeeze from her. "You defs should buy this one.”

 

 


	38. Hell

 

 

“I’m sweating my tits off, Delphine!” Sarah shouts from the living room, and Delphine can only roll her eyes. “It’s hot as hell in here. How can you stand it?”

 

“Ask your sister,” Delphine calls back. It’s certainly not her that puts the thermostat so high. She had grinned and beared the warmth of their apartment when Cosima was still putting on weight and recovering from the clone ilness. Now that she’s better, the heat is starting to get difficult to rationalize. She often has to switch off the thermostat until Cosima notices it’s off and switches it back on again.

 

“I’m from California,” Cosima says, emerging from their shared bedroom. She’s finally ready to head out, layered in sweater and a thick jacket, a scarf, gloves, and a hat. “I don’t do cold, okay? And stop laughing, Sarah!”

 

 


	39. Homeless (Hiker AU)

 

 

Thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail has always been a dream of hers, and Delphine finally gets to realize it. She goes on sabbatical, puts teaching and research aside for a year to hike from Mexico to Canada. On that trail - near San Diego, in fact - is where she meets Cosima. 

 

“Hey,” the hippy girl drawls, hands fluttering nervously. “I saw you earlier. We’re hiking the same pace.”

 

Delphine nods in agreement. She’d stopped at a scenic overlook earlier that day and noticed the girl, said hello, and kept going since it was early in the day. They haven’t been following each other exactly, but Delphine had noticed their paths overlapping over the day, over rests and stops and long stretches. 

 

“We are,” she agrees, and the hippy girl smiles at her. They’ve both managed to stop near the same campsite, their bags dumped on the ground as they survey where to spend the night. There are no other tents, and Delphine’s not afraid of that sort of thing. But - 

 

“Mind if I set up camp near you?”

 

Delphine smiles again, watches the hippy girl’s confidant look, and decides that she might as well get to know this girl whose path could very well mirror hers for the next twenty-five-hundred miles.

 

“Please, go ahead.”

 

 


	40. Treason (X Company AU)

 

 

 

She wasn’t supposed to fall in love with Cosima Niehaus. The point of the mission was to befriend the young scientific protegee, get the information about what in the world the Germans were working on in their labs, and get out. Instead Delphine found a subversive radical trying to dismantle the system from the inside. How in the world could she not take advantage of the opportunity given to her?

 

And despite the danger, the girl was an incorrigible flirt. 

 

The relationship was not so difficult to explain in itself - rare and unspoken of, yes. But the fact that it was _Fräulein Niehaus_ helping them threw a wrench in it all. If she were anything else but German, Delphine wouldn’t find herself in such a bind - but then they wouldn’t have possession of German work, would they, science that Cosima had copied and smuggled out of her superior's lab at great personal expense.

 

“ _Liebchen_ ,” Cosima murmurs, turning over, and there are kisses that press against her bare shoulder, that make their way up her neck, until Cosima is nipping at her jaw. “I can practically hear you thinking.”

 

There has to be a way to convince Sinclair to extract Cosima with them, for more reasons than one. But that is a call for tomorrow morning, after Cosima has left and Delphine has a moment to herself before rejoining the others.

 

“Sorry,” Delphine says, tilting towards Cosima and kissing her before slipping arms around her waist and settling her head against Cosima’s shoulder. Sleep is a good goal, now so late at night, and Delphine closes her eyes though she’s far from sleepy. (Tired, yes - deliciously, wonderfully tired. Sleepy, no). “ _Bonne nuit, Cosima._ ”

 

 

 


	41. Debauchery (Non-Clone AU)

 

 

There’s a little bit of a misunderstanding on Delphine’s part about who puts their keys and where and for how long, and at the end of the night the friend she’s come to the party with ends up with someone else. She’s one of the last to leave the party because she’s been going around trying to find _who_ has her damn keys and _this sexy party idea is idiotique_ and _how did Clara ever convince her to come_ when she finally she finds herself facing a petite woman in dreadlocks holding her keys.

 

“You’re not really familiar with the concept of a key party, are you?” the woman says with a grin, tossing them at her, and Delphine catches them without dropping them, shakes her head and smiles back.

 

“Are you… up for this?” she asks, grasping for the right phrase. And, of course, simply to ask. She can give her a ride home - _just_ a ride - if that’s what the woman is looking for.

 

But the other woman grins again, shakes her head, and slips her arm around Delphine’s comfortably, and Delphine decides that yes she would most definitely like to leave the party now, please and thank you.

 

“That’s why I’m here, isn't it?”

 

 


	42. Avocado (College AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> youre sat alone in the canteen eating an avocado with a teaspoon r u ok

 

 

 

“I understand that avocados are on everything here,” the girl says – the one from down the hall who, coincidentally, she has a major crush on – and so Cosima drags her head up, stills her spoon, and watches as the girl hesitates between standing and sitting down at the cafeteria table across from her. “But, uh, I have never seen anyone just eat an avocado. At eleven at night.”

 

Cosima grins, holds up her spoon with a sliver of avocado on it. It’s always been a treat, to find the perfect ripe avocado and eat it with a little salt on it and nothing else. It’s practically the most decadent thing you can do, so asides from her accent it’s clear that Blondie’s still getting used to California living. “You’re not from around here, are you?” Cosima asks, a rhetorical question, and the girl smiles, wobbles, and finally decides to sit down.

 

Cosima watches as she takes a seat across from her, as she leans her elbows on the table and smiles at her. Is this normal for her? Does she usually talk to weirdos in pajamas hanging out in the cafeteria after hours? Cosima's  _almost_  embarrassed at being found like this, but, hey, the avocado’s too good for that to last long.

 

“How did you guess?” the girl asks wryly, and holds out her hand, suddenly formal. “ _Delphine_ , by the way.”

 

Cosima shifts her spoon to her free hand, shakes with her right, and grins. So Delphine _is_ new around here. There’s only one thing to do, then. “Cosima,” Cosima replies, introducing herself. She holds up the spoon temptingly, a sliver of perfectly ripe avocado on it. “You want some?”

 

Delphine’s eyes go wide as she looks at the avocado on the table in front of Cosima and then back at her. “Of your avocado?” she asks, incredulous.

 

She either gets how good the offer is _or_ she’s creeped out. Cosima bets it all on the first one, waves a free hand in front of herself loosely. “Yeah. The more the merrier, right?” she says, which is true, but especially true if it’s the cutie down the hall you’re trying to impress. If building a nest works for the male bowerbird then giving a girl your avocado is, like, kinda similar, right? “This one’s _really_ good,” Cosima says, sing-song, and grins, waving the spoon around. “I got it at the farmer’s market. _Totally_ organic.”

 

Delphine makes an interested little noise, leans forward a little, and looks back at her. “Are you sure?” she asks.

 

“Yeah. Here,” Cosima says, and holds out the spoon to Delphine handle-first. “I don’t have to, like, feed it to you or anything,” she laughs, and it gets a giggle out of Delphine, too, clearly overwhelmed at the logistics of the offer.

 

“This is perfect,” Delphine says after a bite, a smile growing on her face, and Cosima nods, reaches out for the salt shaker and starts to fiddle with the cap to keep her hands busy.

 

“Not to brag, but yeah,” she admits with a shrug. It’s why Alison always drags her to the market whenever she needs help making guac for a party, because that girl has the uncanny ability to pick the avocados that take the longest to ripen. A curse, Cosima had called it, and Alison had gone red-faced, muttered about Cosima and science and horticulture and demanded that Cosima teach her her trick, which, hey, she just can't do. At least, not for just anyone. “I’ve kinda got a thing for picking out ripe avocados.”

 

Delphine hands her back the spoon, and Cosima takes it, digs into the half-eaten avocado and takes a bite before offering the spoon back to Delphine. Surprisingly, Delphine takes it again, and Cosima slides the avocado across the table to her approvingly as Delphine asks, “Can you teach me?”

 

“For sure!” Cosima says. It’s an excuse to split an avocado with a pretty girl tonight and buy more tomorrow - could this be any more of a win-win situation? Maybe she should try her luck and buy a lotto ticket, too. Cosima sits up, grins, the details of her day running through her mind. “I have morning classes, but how does three o’clock sound?” she asks hopefully, and watches as Delphine nods lightly in agreement. 

 

“ _Oui. Parfait,_ " Delphine says, and hands Cosima her spoon back. "And I'm buying, to thank you for eating half your avocado."

 

Which, okay - it's a win-win-win scenario now, Cosima realizes, accepting the spoon a little dazedly. And she is _definitely_ in love.

 

 

 


	43. Coffee (Neighbors AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you are never home when the mail comes so  i always have to take your packages you fucker

 

 

 

Cosima Niehaus - whoever she is - has a shopping addiction. 

 

Delphine smiles thinly at the delivery person, trying to be polite, and scribbles a vague guestimation of what her neighbor’s signature might look like, wondering what _this_  package might be.

 

She’s been signing for them about every day since the woman moved in next door two weeks ago and, frankly, Delphine decides, taking the package and shutting the door behind herself, it’s getting ridiculous. She understands that Cosima is new to the building, but how does someone not realize that her packages are being misdelivered?

 

Delphine tosses the package on the couch near the door, tells herself vindictively that she’ll deliver it _later_ , and stomps back to the bathroom, shedding her robe, now slightly damp from the interruption. It’s easy enough to sign for them and drop them off at Cosima’s doorstep, but this time the package had come right in the middle of a soothing bath coupled with a glass of wine after what felt like the longest shift in resident history, and she is _not_ in a charitable mood.

 

It’s only an hour later, when Delphine is getting dinner ready, that she hears the familiar sound of her neighbor’s heels on the hardwood floor, the rattle of her many keys, the ever-present clearing of her throat. Time to move.

 

Delphine reaches out, moves the pan off the stove burner and turns it off before dashing out of the kitchen. She grabs the package on her way to the door, flings it open, and, _merde_ , there is no one left out in the hallway. Only the sight of Cosima’s door shutting behind her.

 

Well. She’s not easily deterred, and she wants this nonsense over with. Delphine walks up the door, raps with her knuckles, sharp and clear, and calls out, _“Cosima?”_

 

She’s right on Cosima’s heels so it really takes only a moment for the door to open, for her neighbor to look extremely confused before looking up, meeting her eyes in surprise, and then for a smile to spread slow over her face. “Hey, neighbor!” Cosima drawls cheerfully, leaning up against the door frame lazily. “What’s up?”

 

The annoyance at having to deliver packages on her time off slips away as Delphine stands there dumbly – she’s left with nothing except a package and the realization that Cosima Niehaus, serial shopper, is _cute_. “Your package,” Delphine says uselessly, holding the yellow padded envelope out, and Cosima stands straight once more, reaches out and takes it from Delphine with an incredulous look.

 

“How did you get that?” Cosima asks, simply a question, no worry or accusation. Delphine lets out a sharp laugh because how _didn’t_ she get it? 

 

“You live in apartment seventeen,” Delphine enunciates, offering with a helpful point of a finger to the address on the package, which clearly states eighteen, _her_ apartment. “Not eighteen.”

 

It takes a second to process but immediately after, Cosima closes her eyes, reaches up with her free hand and presses a palm to her forehead in exasperation. “Oh, no,” she says slowly, and then laughs before letting her hand fall baack to her side. She faces Delphine with an embarrassed grin. “I am so sorry. I thought they were just dropping them off without having me sign.” Cosima leans back against the door, nods mostly to herself as she concludes, “And… you’ve been signing the whole time.”

 

“Yes. You shop a lot.”

 

“Sorry. Textbooks for class,” Cosima explains, and then perks up, smiling once more. “Is there any way I can make this up to you?”

 

Cosima is cute, yes, and honest and forward and watching her in a way that might mean _making it up_ involves more than just strict repayment, and so Delphine’s immediate response – _changing your delivery address would be helpful_ – is mentally discarded as Delphine crosses her arms, smiles, and jokingly says, “I accept payment in coffee.”

 

She’s rusty at flirting. It’s been years since she’s found the need to do it, and even then, her humor hadn’t quite come across as a joke to the target audience. Katja had told her to lighten up, smiles some more, but it just wasn't _her_. Luckily, Cosima grins, apparently finding it funny, tongue poking through teeth as she looks up at her like she’s just won the lottery. “Yeah?” Cosima breathes, a laugh following. “Sounds good to me. Are you free right now?”

 

“Unfortunately, no,” Delphine replies honestly. She’s going to make dinner, eat, and sleep until she has to drag herself out of bed at an ungodly hour. She’s got precious few hours to spare chitchatting today. “But I am tomorrow.”

 

“Right,” Cosima says, nodding at the perfectly reasonable response. She waves a hand at nothing in particular, at the two of them standing in the hallway. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow around …?”

 

She trails off, and Delphine, realizing, offers, “Noon?” 

 

Cosima grins again, nods, and hefts her package in her hands, takes a step back into her apartment as they finally part.

 

“Noon tomorrow. See ya, Delphine.”

 

 

-

 

 

She has to keep from growling Cosima’s name in annoyance as her doorbell rings.

 

 _“Une minute!”_ she shouts, right in the middle of a sweep of mascara. But the doorbell rings again, insistent, and Delphine breathes in, out, calms herself, makes sure her eyelash looks good for later – if there’s even going to _be_ a later, after this – before heading for the door.

 

“Yes?” she says sharply, and winces at her own words as the delivery person holds out a small package uncertainly.

 

“Delivery for a Delphine C?”

 

That’s new. Usually she gets deliveries for Cosima. And she certainly doesn’t remember signing up for Amazon Prime anytime recently. “Yes, that’s me,” Delphine finally says, and she takes the pen offered to her and the clipboard, scribbles her own signature down on the line and hands it back.

 

She takes the package to the kitchen counter, grabs scissors and opens it, finds a package of Death Wish Whole Bean Coffee staring up at her from the box, nestled in puffy protective plastic filler. She definitely didn’t order but, but is it any resident’s place to sneeze at a free bag of the world’s strongest coffee? No, Delphine decides, setting the bag near her coffee maker for later. No, it is not.

 

When she locks her door behind herself later and meets Cosima in the hallway, the other woman winks at her, grins, as they fall in step and head for the elevator.

 

“You got my package, right?” Cosima asks smugly, and Delphine can only shake her head in amusement.

 

“Yes. Brat.”

 

“You love it.”

 

 

 


	44. Discover (Triplet AU)

 

 

 

The two truths and a lie ice breaker usually trips people up. 

 

“I’m twenty-seven, I collect board games, and I’m part of a set of triplets,” Cosima says. The age is a lie because she’s never sure how deep to go with these things. Delphine seems to think, biting a lip gently before nodding. 

 

“The triplets?” she answers uncertainly, and Cosima grins, shaking her head.

 

“Nope. I’m twenty-eight. My sisters are Sarah and Helena.”

 

“I have two sisters as well, but we’re all several years apart,” Delphine says, and they both reach for their phones, laughing as they bring them out. 

 

“Clémence et Solène,” Delphine says, and Cosima leans forward, catches a glimpse of picture of a pair of sisters that look vaguely like Delphine. She’s the middle child, Cosima realizes absently, and sits between her sisters with a huge smile.

 

“France?”

 

“Vacation to Rome.”

 

“That’s Sarah,” Cosima says, offering up her phone and pointing to Sarah in her leather jacket, and then to Helena in a pretty white sundress. “And that is Helena. Camping trip. Guess which one or more of us hated it.” She’s in there, too, her and Helena looking like they’re having a great time, and Sarah giving her bunny ears.

 

“Now I believe you,” Delphine says with a laugh. “I thought statistically it wasn’t likely, so I thought it was the lie.”

 

“I like the way you think,” Cosima says with a grin, and she feels a flutter as Delphine smiles back. “So, uh, can I call dibs on you as my lab partner for the semester?”

 

“Yes, I’d like that,” Delphine says neatly, and Cosima holds out her phone, watches happily as they swap and as Delphine takes it and starts to enter in her phone number. 

 

 

 


	45. Whispered Wars (Canon)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sidling up to Delphine, it’s easy to rest her hand on the other woman’s forearm, to steady herself as she reaches up on her toes to nuzzle against her jaw, to murmur low and throaty, “I can’t stop thinking about that kiss.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #68 - whispered wars

 

 

 

Sidling up to Delphine, it’s easy to rest her hand on the other woman’s forearm, to steady herself as she reaches up on her tiptoes to nuzzle against her jaw, to murmur low and throaty, “I can’t stop thinking about that kiss.”

 

And of course when Delphine realizes it’s not Cosima who is pressing up against her, Sarah cackles and jumps back, mirrors the quick, shocked step back that Delphine does to put distance between them even though she knows nothing is going to happen. In the little time that she’s known Delphine, she’s never seen or heard her raise her voice or strike out in anger. All she does usually – and it’s almost adorable, really – is stand stock-still, jaw clenched and fists curled and mouth a sharp little frown, until she just _stops_ being angry and goes back to work. She’s fucking perfect, and it’s almost infuriating.

 

But to her surprise, today, after an apparently really shitty week for _all_ of them, she finally gets her response.

 

Sarah watches as Delphine lets out an irritated noise, stares her down, and seems to think for a moment, and then quite suddenly bends her right arm, slapping her left hand onto her bicep as she brings her right arm up sharply. The sight is only momentary, and turning on her heels, Delphine stalks away, throwing open the heavy, slow-moving lab door as much as it can be thrown open and slipping away.

 

It's only once the door has closed behind her with a little pneumatic hiss of the closer that Cosima, who has witnessed everything from her spot lounging on her chill zone couch, begins to laugh.

 

“I don’t speak French, but I think I know what she just told you to do, Sarah.”

 

“Oh, shut it, Cos.”

 

 

 


End file.
